2q5 the wild cat. 



The Wild Cats are sometimes taken in traps, and 

 sometimes by shooting : in the latter mode it is dan- 

 gerous to merely wound them, for they have fre- 

 quently been known to attack the person who injured 

 them ; and their strength is so great as to render 

 them no despicable enemy. — At Barnboro', a village 

 between Doncaster and Barnsley, in Yorkshire, there 

 is a tradition extant of a serious conflict that once 

 took place between a Man and a Wild Cat^ The in- 

 habitants savj that the fight commenced in an ad- 

 jacent wood, and that it was continued from thence 

 into the porch of the church. I do not recollect in 

 what manner it is reported to have begun ; they 

 tell us, however, that it ended fatally to both com- 

 batants, for each died of the wounds received. A 

 rude painting in the church commemorates the 

 event ; and (as in many similar traditions) the ac- 

 cidentally natural red tinge of some of the stones has 

 been construed into bloody stains which all the pro- 

 perties of soap and water haye not been able to efface. 



In Jamaica, from the quantity of food at all sea- 

 sons to be procured in the woods and mountains^ 

 the Domestic Cat is very apt to become wild : to 

 remedy this inconvenience, the country people fre- 

 quently split or cut off its ears, the more to expose 

 these tender organs to the rain or dews; and this is 

 said to be generally effectual *. — In England also 

 the Domestic Cats will sometimes become wild ; and 

 when this happens to be the case, they prove them- 

 selves mortal foes to Pheasants at roost, and more 



* Brcwne, 485. 



